May be going from nat gas furnace to oil - What do I need to know?

[bens_igloo]

Hi all,

Currently living in the city and have a natural gas 95% efficiency furnace and also a natural gas water heater. We have a Regency 2400 insert that we installed a year and a half ago which we use to keep our house nice and toasty.

We are seriously considering moving our family to a rural area, which is heated with an oil furnace (installed in 2010). House is about 1500 sq ft. Coincidentally new prospective property has a Regency 2400 insert on the main floor for heating. Fully open floor plan in the main floor, but no wood heating in the basement. From what I'm told, the current owners keep the oil furnace at 60F and heat with the insert when they are home.

Having never lived outside city limits, this is all new to me. The insert is great for supplemental heat but would it be enough to materially reduce usage of the oil furnace? What else should I consider if it is a primary heat source? What are estimate costs people see with oil furnaces? I currently pay about 100$ a month in natural gas when I use my insert. What kind of extra maintance would be involved?

Appreciate any input from the many oil furnace users on the forum!

 

[KB007]

Hmm, hopefully the oil furnace wil never come on. What efficiency is it rated at? 2010 vintage I would hope it's high efficiency, but you can pretty much guarantee it'll cost more in oil than nat gas. Is the water heater oil or electric? There shouldn't be much more maint on a newer oil furnace than a gas one, however you will have to replace the oil tank every 10 yrs iirc, and may have a slightly higher insurance premium if the tank is inside the house.

 

[Highbeam]

Today's oil prices are pretty decent. It's almost reasonable to use as a fuel. I worry about tomorrow though.

 

[bens_igloo]

Hmm, hopefully the oil furnace wil never come on. What efficiency is it rated at? 2010 vintage I would hope it's high efficiency, but you can pretty much guarantee it'll cost more in oil than nat gas. Is the water heater oil or electric? There shouldn't be much more maint on a newer oil furnace than a gas one, however you will have to replace the oil tank every 10 yrs iirc, and may have a slightly higher insurance premium if the tank is inside the house.

Hoping to find out more details by the end of the week regarding insurance, age of the tank, etc. I'll post again once I have better information !

 

[peakbagger]

Oil furnaces require more frequent cleaning if they are used. If you run a tank a year you probably should get an annual cleaning. Oil furnaces tend to be louder than natural gas. There are two types of oil boilers, the standard units stay hot all the time, even if you aren't using the heat figure 1 gallon a day for the boiler to stay warm. The other type that are rarer are cold start boiler that only run when there is heating demand, they are more expensive but have no standby losses. Some standard boilers can be manually switched off until needed many others start leaking if they are allowed to cool. If you have an alternative heat source that you plan to use hope that you can manually switch off the boiler without leaking as otherwise you are paying to heat the basement and the stack for nothing. Many oil boiler have tankless hot water coils, they are cheap to install but require the boiler to be hot all the time.

Make sure the piping from the oil tank to the boiler is encased in plastic and protected from abuse. If it is poured into the basement floor and does not have a plastic cover, plan on replacing it as the concrete can eventually rot out the copper potentially creating a leak under the slab.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Hi all,

Currently living in the city and have a natural gas 95% efficiency furnace and also a natural gas water heater. We have a Regency 2400 insert that we installed a year and a half ago which we use to keep our house nice and toasty.

We are seriously considering moving our family to a rural area, which is heated with an oil furnace (installed in 2010). House is about 1500 sq ft. Coincidentally new prospective property has a Regency 2400 insert on the main floor for heating. Fully open floor plan in the main floor, but no wood heating in the basement. From what I'm told, the current owners keep the oil furnace at 60F and heat with the insert when they are home.

Having never lived outside city limits, this is all new to me. The insert is great for supplemental heat but would it be enough to materially reduce usage of the oil furnace? What else should I consider if it is a primary heat source? What are estimate costs people see with oil furnaces? I currently pay about 100$ a month in natural gas when I use my insert. What kind of extra maintance would be involved?

Appreciate any input from the many oil furnace users on the forum!

Can't advise you on the insert, but my house is slightly smaller than yours, and I have a 2006 high-efficiency oil boiler (note, not furnace) in the basement and a Hearthstone Heritage on 1st floor. I do not heat my 2nd floor rooms in winter. I have the boiler thermostat set to come on when the stove room falls to 60. Last year, when oil prices were so much higher, I had it set to 55. The Hearthstone can't produce usable heat in mid-winter temperatures all night, so the boiler comes on at some point pretty much every day. (I'm incapable of getting up and reloading competently in the middle of the night.)

I do not run my hot water off the boiler but have an electric water heater. Don't know if that works out to the same $$ or not, but I Could Not Bear hearing that damn money-burner in the basement roaring on numerous times a day all spring, summer and fall.

One PITA about oil heat is that in most places, you can't pay as you use, the way you can piped-in and metered natgas, so you have to come up with the money to fill the thing, or whatever the delivery minimum is (here it's 100 gallons) all at once, so budgeting for that is critical.

You should get the boiler or furnace cleaned by a pro every fall. Costs me maybe 100 bucks.


Last year, I used about 150 gallons of heating oil. This year will probably be about the same, given that the winter hasn't been as brutally cold this year.

 

[midwestcoast]

I have a poorly insulated 1500sf home and that same insert. I get about 75% of my heat from the insert, but my "backup" is a hi-efficiency gas furnace. If I had oil heat I'd probably be even more motivated to keep the stove cranking full time. I use the furnace a little more in shoulder seasons for convenience.
How it usually works for me on a typical mid-winter day is: I load-up the stove before bed, leave the furnace at 63 & have an electric heater on low in my daughters room. The stove will keep the place at temp for 4 or 8 hours depending on outdoor temps. When I get up I'll reload on coals. If my wife & daughter are up I'll used the furnace to bring the house up to temp quickly. Once the insert is cranking it'll be all the heat we need for any days over about 20 as long as someone's home to reload.
Of course your winters are probably colder then here (unless you're Windsor-T.O).

 

[granpajohn]

.. however you will have to replace the oil tank every 10 yrs iirc, .

Fuel tank will last lots longer than that (or are you meaning the boiler tank?)
I plan to replace my oil furnace in the next week, (that's why I'm looking here). A few things I've learned after owning one of each......
- gas is much nicer than oil
- the oil burner really does require cleaning and maintenance that the gas one did not.
- fuel oil is somewhat corrosive to the unit. My oil furnace seems to have eaten through its burner in 20 years. My old gas one was 40 years when I sold the place and is probably still going well for the new owner.
- Making deals with oil suppliers gets tiresome. It's a bit of a tough business. With gas, we just griped about our utility.

Well, none of that really matters. There's no reason to not use oil if you don't have gas available. Just have it serviced annually and count that as part of the cost of living with oil.

Small price to pay to get out of the city, IMHO. Good luck!

 

[Swedishchef]

Welcome to the forums Bens_Igloo!

In what part of Ontario do you live? A Regency 2400 is a nice size insert. It is not the biggest but will certainly put out some great heat with a nicely seasoned hardwood. I think the insert should be able to heat the main floor nicely. The furnace set to 60 isn't a bad idea whatsoever.

I suggest getting a furnace tuneup once a year. $100 or so and is well worth it (depending on how much oil you buy).

Oil is not as expensive today as it was 4 months ago. We are still paying much more than our Southern neighbors. My concern is for next winter or the winter after: when gas was $1.50 a litre, the barrel was $150. Now gas is $0.95 a litre and the barrel is $45. What's going to happen when the barrel hits $115++? One thing is certain: natural gas is much cheaper right now than oil.

Andrew

 

[gyrfalcon]

Welcome to the forums Bens_Igloo!

In what part of Ontario do you live? A Regency 2400 is a nice size insert. It is not the biggest but will certainly put out some great heat with a nicely seasoned hardwood. I think the insert should be able to heat the main floor nicely. The furnace set to 60 isn't a bad idea whatsoever.

I suggest getting a furnace tuneup once a year. $100 or so and is well worth it (depending on how much oil you buy).

Oil is not as expensive today as it was 4 months ago. We are still paying much more than our Southern neighbors. My concern is for next winter or the winter after: when gas was $1.50 a litre, the barrel was $150. Now gas is $0.95 a litre and the barrel is $45. What's going to happen when the barrel hits $115++? One thing is certain: natural gas is much cheaper right now than oil.

Andrew

Oil is definitely going to go up again. The Saudis are losing money hand over fist at this price, and they will run out of their reserve billions in cash that they're using to make up the difference right now in a few years. Every other major oil producer, from Norway to Venezuela to Russia to Iran to U.S. frackers are also losing money big-time. Most experts I've read give it two to three years max at this kind of price. Enjoy it while we've got it, but be ready for it to go up again.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My oil tank was approaching 70 years old when I got rid of it. It was probably the original one, but I could only find inspection tags from a few years after the house was built. The legs were just starting to mushroom.